The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) was introduced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in 2020 to develop positive nature-people scenarios for the future, in which humanity can have a more sustainable future rooted in a flourishing nature.
The framework aims to help understand and incorporate the wide-range of perspectives that people may have on why nature is valuable, and what is valuable within nature, when developing these potential future scenarios.
The different perspectives on nature
To achieve this, the NFF summarises the different ways which people can value nature into three perspectives:
- Nature for Nature, which emphasises the intrinsic values of nature. In this perspective nature has value in and of itself, independent of human judgment and independent of any goods or services that nature may provide to humanity.
- Nature for Society, which emphasises the instrumental values of nature. In this perspective nature is valued for the myriad of goods and service which it provides for humanity. These can be things such as harvestable materials (such as food or timber); how nature regulates our living environment; or even how nature can support our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.
- Nature as Culture, which emphasises the relational values of nature. In this perspective nature is valued for the unique and special relationship that people can have with nature, and for how nature is a part of people’s culture and identity.
The three perspectives are not intended to be mutually exclusive, and people may align with one, two, or all three of the perspective at the same time.
How is wildE using the Nature Futures Framework?
With funding from the wildE project, a team of researchers from Wageningen University, the University of Copenhagen and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg have been developing a psychometric scale based on the NFF. The scale is designed for use in questionnaires, and has been designed to try and understand which of the three perspectives people believe should be a priority in potential future people-nature scenarios.
The scale will be used in an upcoming European-wide survey on the attitudes of the general public towards rewilding. It will be used to explore how people’s attitudes may differ according to what their value perspective of nature is:
- Could people who align more with Nature as Culture have a different view on rewilding compared to people who align more with Nature for Society?
- Could people who align more with Nature for Society have different preferences for approaches to rewilding compared to people who align more with Nature for Nature?